By Kevin Powell
April 12th, 2011
Ashley Judd is a very courageous woman. I am not referring to her work as a
global ambassador for YouthAids, or her efforts to end poverty and sexual
violence in underdeveloped nations overseas, or even her journey here in
America as an actress, mother, daughter of a country music star, and avid
supporter of Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, animal rights, and
equality for women. No, none of that.
Ms. Judd is fearless because she wears her life and her feelings on her
chest, bare, in plain sight, and has written a stunning new memoir, “All
That is Bitter and Sweet,” which discusses, with rawness and candor, her
being sexually abused as a child by a grown man. We as Americans are
deceiving ourselves if we do not think various forms of gender violence
against women and girls is not at epidemic proportions, because it is. Just
ask your mother, grandmother, sister, niece, aunt, female friends, women
co-workers or classmates, girlfriend, wife, or partner, and I guarantee you
someone in that group will have a story similar to Ashley Judd’s either as
girls, or during their adult years.
Kevin Powell is an activist,
public speaker, and award-winning author or editor of 10 books, including
Open Letters to America
(essays) and No Sleep Till Brooklyn
(poetry). Kevin lives in Brooklyn, New York. Email him at
kevin@kevinpowell.net or follow
him on Twitter @kevin_powell
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